The former headquarters for Mervyn’s department stores in Hayward is photographed in this June 2013 file photo. A group of Hayward residents have filed a lawsuit to block plans for Dollinger Properties, of Redwood City, to build a mixed-use project, called Lincoln Landing, on the long vacant site

HAYWARD — A group of Hayward residents are seeking to block a mixed-use project on the former Mervyn’s headquarters site by claiming developers did not adequately resolve lingering environmental concerns before city approvals were granted.

The May 24 lawsuit, filed by the Hayward Smart Growth Coalition in Alameda County Superior Court against Dollinger Properties, alleges that a state-required environmental report on the Lincoln Landing retail and residential development failed to “identify, evaluate, and/or require mitigation for all direct, indirect and cumulative environmental impacts the project will foreseeably cause.”

The group alleges that city leaders, also named in the 12-page suit, wrongfully approved the project, certified the environmental report and granted the land entitlements needed for Dollinger Properties, of Redwood City, to raze the old Mervyn’s headquarters building and build two residential towers, with 476 apartments, along with 80,500 square feet of commercial retail space on the 11.5-acre property along Foothill Boulevard.

“Substantial evidence … shows the project will have several significant, unmitigated environmental impacts that the (environmental report) either failed to identify, failed to evaluate adequately, or failed to mitigate where feasible,” Hayward Smart Growth Coalition’s attorney Mark Wolfe, of San Francisco, wrote in the group’s lawsuit.

City officials declined to comment further on the lawsuit. Dollinger Properties representatives, meanwhile, did not return repeated emails and phone calls by press time.

“Our response will be contained in legal filings responsive to the lawsuit,” Hayward spokesman Chuck Finnie wrote in an email.

No such documents, however, were available as of Tuesday.

The Hayward Smart Growth Coalition is described in the lawsuit as a group of residents and property owners “advocating for equitable and responsible land use development policies, maintaining political accountability by elected local officials and enforcing land use planning and environmental laws in and around Hayward.” Its members include Hayward residents Desirae Schmidt, Evangelina Mares, Frank Rasberry, Janet Nielsen and Sandra Macias, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims many of the group’s members “will suffer direct harm as a result of any adverse environmental and/or public health impacts caused by the project.”

The City Council approved the Lincoln Landing project in April after denying an appeal filed by Wolfe on Schmidt’s behalf. That appeal, seeking to overturn the Planning Commission’s April approval of the project, claimed the project’s environmental report did not adequately analyze traffic congestion impacts to neighboring streets, respond to comments from the community or analyze impacts to neighboring retailers.

Hayward also was criticized in the appeal for not considering a scaled-back version of the Lincoln Landing project with less development, according to a Feb. 22 letter to the council from Wolfe.

The lawsuit seeks to overturn the council’s approval of the project and its environmental report, as well as halt demolition or construction activities until the matter is resolved.

Approved plans for the Foothill Boulevard site, along Hazel Avenue and City Center Drive, include two six-story residential towers: one along City Center Drive, with 267 apartments on five floors above ground-floor commercial retail and parking spaces, and one on Hazel Avenue, with a two-story, 284-stall parking garage and 209 apartments on four floors.

About 60,000 square feet of commercial space will be built between the two towers, including a 35,000-square-foot retail store.

Other features include six courtyards for Lincoln Landing residents; a 7,000-square-foot public park on Hazel next to San Lorenzo Creek; and a pathway along the creek between Hazel and City Center Drive.

Parts of the four-story Mervyn’s headquarters building and 5,300-square-foot office building next to it have been demolished already, but it is not clear whether the lawsuit has halted work at the site.

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